The Rise Of A Billionaire 1943-Chapter 185 - 199: Arrival in Loyal Borneo
The army advanced rapidly.
After occupying Tarakan Island, as part of Operation Oboe One, the Third Reinforced Brigade landed in northern Borneo, heading straight for Sandakan, the capital of North Borneo for the past several decades.
Since this was a return to Borneo, retaking the capital was naturally imperative.
Moreover, Sandakan was Borneo’s finest port, capable of accommodating ten-thousand-ton ships. Most importantly, of the local population of 150,000, 140,000 were overseas Chinese. If anywhere had a strong popular base, it was here.
Thus, on May 17, the Third Reinforced Brigade, along with the First Armored Regiment and reinforced artillery, armored, and engineering units, launched the campaign to recapture Sandakan along the not-so-wide roads through the rainforest. The Japanese garrison in Sandakan consisted only of the Independent Infantry Battalion 554 and several hundred civilian settlers. Given the Allies’ overwhelming naval and air superiority, the Independent Mixed Brigade 56, responsible for defending North Borneo, adopted a strategy of avoiding direct confrontation, voluntarily withdrawing from Sandakan and preparing to use the mountainous rainforest terrain to resist the enemy.
On May 27, the vanguard of the First Armored Regiment—twelve Panther tanks—charged into Sandakan. There was no fierce battle, only the astonished faces of their compatriots.
"Look, their flag seems to have a dragon on it!"
"It’s a dragon! How could foreigners use a dragon?"
Soon, sharp-eyed people noticed that the soldiers atop the tanks were neither foreigners nor locals, but Chinese—just like them!
"This must be China..."
Although many buildings in Sandakan had been destroyed by Allied bombings and Japanese sabotage, the various Lingnan-style buildings and Chinese shop signs remaining along the roads made Qi Mingsheng, atop his tank, feel as if he were in a small town back home.
Central Bookstore, Youth Bookshop, Li’s Grocery, Hongyun Restaurant...
Everything looked just like it did back in China. Even the people occasionally peeking out from the arcades along the street looked no different from themselves.
"Soldier, are you Chinese?"
From an open window in an arcade by the roadside, a middle-aged man asked timidly in halting Mandarin.
"Yes, I’m from Dengcheng, Henan."
Though they didn’t know where Henan or Dengcheng were, the same language and bloodline connected them. While the older generation only spoke Cantonese, the young people had all learned Mandarin at the Chinese school. A teenager jumped onto the tank and shouted,
"My name is Li Niantang, ancestral home Nanhai, Guangdong. Sir, are you really Chinese?"
"Yes, we’re Chinese! I’m from Henan, he’s from Shanxi, and that guy on tank number three is from Guangxi..."
"It really is a Chinese army!"
Very soon, the whole city was in an uproar. People poured into the streets to welcome the army. On this day, everyone’s face was beaming with joy. Many took out flags they had hidden at home during the war.
Mandarin and Cantonese echoed through the streets. Although many elderly people could only speak Cantonese and didn’t understand Mandarin, it didn’t stop them from holding the soldiers’ hands and repeatedly expressing their longing, recounting the Japanese atrocities of the past few years.
On this day, Sandakan was liberated!
And on this day, Sandakan returned to its rightful owners.
After receiving the telegram about Sandakan’s liberation, Pierre did not rush back to the city.
After all, some things couldn’t be hurried. The Japanese were still near Sandakan and needed to be further cleared out. Besides, the port needed to be swept for mines laid by the Japanese.
On June 2, Pierre sailed into Sandakan Bay aboard the "Sandakan" landing ship.
"In the future, this can be our naval base," Pierre said, pointing at the bay.
"Sandakan Bay is wide inside and narrow at the mouth, 24 kilometers long, 2 kilometers wide at the entrance, 8 kilometers wide inside. It is a rare natural deep-water port in Borneo, able to berth ten-thousand-ton ships. The deepest part of the harbor exceeds 20 meters, and there are over 100 square kilometers of deep-water area over 10 meters deep—plenty deep for an aircraft carrier..."
Aircraft carriers—Borneo would need to build its own someday. Even a country like Brazil had aircraft carriers. In fact, it might be time to put aircraft carriers on the agenda now.
After all, the US and UK would soon be retiring large numbers of carriers. Not only could those carriers be used in combat, but they could also serve as transport ships for immigrants.
Yes, it seemed it was time to put aircraft carriers on the agenda.
"We can build a large shipyard here. After the war ends and the shipping industry revives..."
"We must seize this opportunity and become a shipbuilding powerhouse."
At the very least, we should surpass the Japanese!
In another world, wasn’t shipbuilding one of the engines driving Japan’s economic revival? What should Borneo’s future industrial policy be?
It’s to follow Japan’s path—until there’s no path left for Japan!
And it’s not just about shipbuilding. In the future, Borneo will surely develop other industries as well, and ultimately become a modern industrial powerhouse.
A nation!
This is my nation!
Finally, the "Sandakan" docked at the pier. I have to say, capitalists are never reliable—back when the Japanese army invaded, the Straits Settlements had ordered the North Borneo Company to destroy the port and railway, to blow up the railway tunnels. However, after some discussion, the executives at the North Borneo Company decided to pay lip service and do the opposite.
After all, those ports and railways had cost them tens of millions of pounds to build. If they blew them up, it would take massive funds to rebuild. Would the authorities compensate them then?
Clearly, they had no faith whatsoever in the officials in London. So when the railway from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan and the ports at both ends fell into Japanese hands, they were almost completely intact.
As for why the Japanese didn’t destroy them now—it’s not that they didn’t want to, but they simply lacked enough explosives.
Whether it’s destroying a port or a railway, it takes a lot of explosives. For the resource-strapped Japanese army, it was simply beyond their means. Still, they did destroy basic facilities like the dockside cranes and water towers, but those machines were easy to repair.
In just a few days, the port was back in operation.
"Thanks to the Japanese, with this port, Borneo’s development can be brought forward by at least a year!"
A year!
And that’s an optimistic estimate. If the port had been destroyed, not only would it have been impossible to bring in large machinery, even getting personnel ashore would have been difficult. That would have seriously delayed the pace of reconstruction.
But now?
A fully equipped port, almost entirely undamaged—it’s like a blessing from above!
However, compared to the port, the city wasn’t so lucky—Sandakan was almost razed to the ground by Allied bombing, with 70% of its buildings destroyed. After all, this was the most important port in northern Borneo.
"In a way, that’s good—it gives us the chance for postwar reconstruction."
With these thoughts, on June 2nd, Pierre finally set foot on the soil of North Borneo. The moment he stepped onto the Sandakan dock, he was greeted not only by the cheering local residents, but also by the system!
The long-lost system had finally upgraded once again.
"User confirmed to have acquired North Borneo, area: 74,500 square kilometers..."
In previous transactions, whether it was purchasing the North Borneo Company or Sarawak, there hadn’t been any system rewards, just some one-time skill bonuses for each transaction.
Why wasn’t it converted into funds?
Because it hadn’t been truly secured yet.
But when he set foot in North Borneo, this land finally "materialized," and in an instant, he achieved a long-awaited breakthrough. After all, since the last upgrade, the next threshold was in the billions of dollars.
Acquiring North Borneo—even if only part of it—marked the cashing in of a "blank check," finally triggering the upgrade.
"Congratulations, user experience has successfully advanced to LV.4. We hope you will continue to work hard."
